(GEMERT, NETHERLANDS)
In August Bowhuntingteam Unicorn organise a 3D shoot. The 2-day competition, now in its twenty-second year, is based on the IFAA system but is classified as a ‘B Class’ tournament which means the club has latitude with the types of shots it sets on the course. As a result, the competition consist of an array of shots including extreme distance, moving targets, ‘plus-minus’ and ‘hunter’ targets as well as a bucking unicorn and a steel unicorn!
The completion is now one of the biggest in Holland attracting approximately 200 archers not only from the Netherlands but also Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and even as far away as Ireland! This year three intrepid members of IFAF, Martin McCabe, Marjan Boers and Lynn Ellingworth, travelled to Gemert, near Eindhoven in the south of Holland, to participate in one of the country’s most famous, and challenging, competitions…
On each of the two days 36 targets are shot. The scoring system took a little bit of getting used to as there were various scores available depending on how the target was classified. Targets which had specific scoring were ‘Hunters’ where an archer shot a single arrow or plus-minus targets where an archer would have points deducted for hitting the wrong target or if they missed completely. There were other targets, like the ‘flying’ pig or ‘pop-up’ frogs which were scored using the IFAA scoring system and then there were the ‘bonus’ shots like the ‘bucking unicorn’ for which there was no score but the archer with their arrow closest to a marker-pin won drinks on the Saturday night and, most importantly, the steel unicorn (AKA the arrow slayer) which, if accurately shot, would award the archer with an extra forty points but if the aim was off half of the course heard a resounding CLANG! (and smiled knowingly) and a broken arrow was the reward for their effort.
After the first day there was a certain amount of uncertainty about the level of shooting, the variety of shots and scoring options meant it was hard to gauge how well (or not) one had done. Any doubts about flying the flag for Ireland were well and truly laid to rest when the results from Saturday were reviewed showing Marjan with a comfortable 54 point advantage on the 2nd place Flatbow lady and Lynn had a 39 point lead over the 2nd place Bowhunter-Recurve lady. Martin was holding his own in the hotly contested Bowhunter-Recurve gents category by coming in 9th place.
On the second day the competition was more of the same but featured a lot more Hunter targets. Some stand-out shots from the weekend were scoring on the steel unicorn, which both Marjan and Martin did, a super-kill on the flying pig by Marjan, another super-kill on the moose, which was over 80 yards, by Martin and hitting the ‘skinny’ turkey target from the ‘bucking’ unicorn, on Day 2, and getting a super-kill on the ‘pop-up’ frogs by Lynn.
When final results were announced they were impressive! Martin moved up from 9th to 6th place in AMBH-R, Lynn won in AFBH-R, for the second year in a row, and Marjan won in AFFB. Marjan’s was the best performance by far, she also won the perpetual ‘Top Shot’ trophy. Her scores over the two days smashed the ‘best average’ score for any style, across the sexes and ages, in the competition.
The shoot was superb and all three who travelled would recommend it to anyone thinking of going.
